Women in Nepal are empowered through adult functional literacy programs called Non Formal Education (NFE). The NFE classes are held six nights per week using discussion and group socialization processes that develop critical thinking and build self-esteem in a society in which women have few or no legal rights. In these programs, women gain life-sustaining skills and develop the confidence to make decisions affecting them and their families. Self-confident women can be the implementers and brokers of their own programs where they express their views on their rights as citizens of Nepal and as confident adults in the world. However, summative evaluation of the NFE classes can pose barriers to women's empowerment because external evaluators do not understand that the women gain life skills and control of their lives even if they do not retain all their literacy skills in the long term. (KC)